Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!: The Enforcer (1976) - Eastwood teaches revolutionaries a lesson in third, less punchy Dirty Harry

1/23/2018

The Enforcer (1976) - Eastwood teaches revolutionaries a lesson in third, less punchy Dirty Harry

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Clint Eastwood and his signature .44 Magnum stand ready to enforce before San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge on this poster for James Fargo's The Enforcer

A group of revolutionary maniacs rage and rob a mass of explosive weapon in San Francisco, while uncompromising hood-hunter detective Harry Callahan is popular and then unpopular with the city's populist mayor.

The ideological fronts are clearly drawn (as usual) here in the third film in the Dirty Harry franchise, which is less original than the two preceding chapters. Clint Eastwood (Rawhide (1959-65)) is still awfully enjoyable as the titular enforcer Callahan, and here he gets Tyne Daly (Christy (1994-95)) as his new partner. The plot - although fairly ludicrous, - does entail enough corny fun and action to entertain fans of Eastwood and Dirty Harry fairly well. But don't expect The Enforcer to invent or add anything really new to the police action genre.

The Enforcer is written by Stirling Silliphant (Over the Top (1987)) and Dean Riesner (Charley Varrick (1973)), based on a script by Gail Morgan Hickman (The Equalizer (1989), TV-series) and S.W. Schurr, and directed by debuting James Fargo (Forced Vengeance (1982)), who was previously a second unit director.

James Fargo: Every Which Way but Loose (1978) or, Honky Tonk Monkey Business!

The Dirty Harry franchise: The Dead Pool (1988) - The highly entertaining last Dirty Harry movie
Dirty Harry (1971) - Eastwood's great, signature renegade cop character comes to life

Listen to Jerry Fielding's score from the movie here

Cost: 9 mil. $

Box office: 46.2 mil. $ (North America only)

= Some uncertainty - but at least a big hit and probably a huge hit

[The Enforcer was released 22 December (North America) and runs 96 minutes. The first script was by San Francisco area film students Hickman and Schurr, who got it to Eastwood through his Carmel restaurant The Hog's Breath Inn. Eastwood intended to direct the film himself but was too busy after taking over directing on his western The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976) and instead promoted his assistant director Fargo. Shooting took place in California, mostly in San Francisco in and around June 1976. The film became the 9th highest-grossing film in North America of 1976 and the highest-grossing Dirty Harry picture until the next one in 1983. The Enforcer was intended to be the last in a Dirty Harry trilogy, but audience demand - and Eastwood's willingness to perform in exchange for funding for his more personal projects, - brought Eastwood's Dirty Harry back for two more films; Sudden Impact (1983) and The Dead Pool (1988). Fargo followed the film up with Caravans (1978), and Eastwood returned in The Gauntlet (1977). The Enforcer is fresh at 79 % with a 6.3/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of The Enforcer?

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Donald Sutherland has passed away

Born in Canada, Sutherland battled polio as a child. His first credit was in Suspense (1963, TV-series) and his first film was The Castle of the Living Dead (1964). Later credits in his remarkable career include The Saint (1965-66), The Dirty Dozen (1967), M*A*S*H (1970), Kelly's Heroes (1970), Klute (1971), Don't Look Now (1973), 1900 (1976), Casanova (1976), The Eagle Has Landed (1976), Ordinary People (1980), A Dry White Season (1989), JFK (1991), Outbreak (1995), Fallen (1998), Virus (1999), Fierce People (2005), Pride & Prejudice (2005), Lord of War (2005), The Hunger Games (2012), The Undoing (2020, miniseries) and many more. He passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Roger Corman has passed away

Born in Detroit, Michigan, Corman had a sprawling, intellectually hungry life as a youth and young man before arriving with his first film in 1955, Five Guns West. He would follow that with titles such as Apache Woman, It Conquered the World, Attack of the Crab Monsters, Teenage Cave Man, A Bucket of Blood, House of Usher, The Little Shop of Horrors, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Intruder, The Raven, The Terror, The Masque of Red Death, The Tomb of Ligeia, The Wild Angels, The Trip, Bloody Mama and many more. As a producer he was behind almost 500 films. Arguably among the most important filmmakers of the 20th century, Corman passed away at age 98. R.I.P.

William Friedkin has died

Born in Chicago, Friedkin accrued TV credits prior to his advance to the big screen as the director of Good TImes (1967), The Birthday Party (1968), The Night They Raided Minsky's (1968) and The Boys in the Band (1970) before his major breakthrough, The French Connection (1971), for which he won his only Oscar. He followed it up with the even bigger smash, The Exorcist (1973), arguably the best horror film of all time, for which he was Oscar-nominated. Later credits include Sorcerer (1977), Cruising (1980), To Live and Die in L.A. (1985), Rampage (1987), Rules of Engagement (2000), Killer Joe (2011) and The Devil and Father Amorth (2017, documentary). Friedkin passed away at age 87. R.I.P.

Louise Fletcher has passed away

Born in Alabama to deaf parents, Fletcher got her first credits in late-1950s TV-series.She took a 10 year-long sabbatical to devote her time to motherhood after the release of A Gathering of Eagles, but then came back and soon saw her career's most important part, as Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), for which she won her sole Oscar. Later credits include Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), The Lucky Star (1980), Brainstorm (1983), Two Moon Junction (1988), Cruel Intentions (1999), A Perfect Man (2013) and many more. Fletcher passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Jean-Luc Godard has passed away

Born in Paris, France, Godard lived much of his life in Switzerland. He wrote for French film criticism magazine Cahiers du Cinema and became foundational for the New French Wave that inspired new waves in scores of other countries across the world with his Breathless (1960). Later credits include A Woman Is A Woman (1961), Vivre Sa Vie (1962), Le Petit Soldat (1962), Contempt (1963), Alphaville (1965), Pierrot le Fou (1965), 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her (1967), Weekend (1967), Every Man for Himself (1980), King Lear (1987), Century of Cinema (1995, documentary), Goodbye to Language (2014) and many more. Godard died of assisted suicide at age 91. R.I.P.

Wolfgang Petersen has died

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Jean-Louis Trintignant has died

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Ray Liotta has died

Adopted from an orphenage at a young age, Liotta got hooked on acting in high school. He had various TV credits in the late 1970s and early 80s, with his film debut in The Lonely Lady (1983). Later credits include Something Wild (1986), Field of Dreams (1989), Goodfellas (1990), Cop Land (1997), Hannibal (2001), Blow (2001), Narc (2002), John Q (2002), Identity (2003), Observe and Report (2009), Youth in Revolt (2009), The Details (2011), Killing THem Softly (2012), The Place Beyond the Pines (2012), Shades of Blue (2016-18), The Simpsons (2018, TV-series), Marriage Story (2019), The Many Saints of Newark (2021), Black Bird (2022, TV-series) and many more. Liotta passed away at age 67 in his sleep while on production in the Dominican Republic. R.I.P.

Philip Baker Hall has died

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Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!

Eagerly anticipating this week ... (15-24)

1/23/2018